Grants for workplace safety

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The Alberta government is aiming to help promote workplace health and safety throughout the province.

The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Innovation and Engagement Grants program will provide $667,000 for 33 projects during 2017 throughout the province.

“Protecting workers and preventing injuries and death is a top priority for our government,” Labour Minister Christina Gray said in a statement.
The bi-provincial Try-A- Trade Career Expo and Lakeland Regional Safety Conference “Learning to Succeed” put on by the Lloydminster Construction Association, each received $5,000 for funding.

“We are very pleased to be given the funding for the two events,” said Dorothy Carson, executive director at the Lloydminster Construction Association.

The eighth annual Try-A-Trade Career Expo will be held May 3, and it aims to provide career information to students and the general public, as they inform them about possible careers in the trade.

“What we have done with the grant is we also have the safety aspect of the expo,” explained Carson. “We want kids to get the information about the careers but we also want them to look at the safety portion in the workplace. With the funding from OHS, we will be providing safety displays for the students and participants.”

The funding will go towards providing a bigger experience for the students that attend the expo.

“It just provides us with some funding dollars where we can provide some more volunteers and provide some better displays for the students just to realize how important safety is in a workplace,” Carson said.

As for the fourth annual Lakeland Regional Safety Conference, it will be held on Sept. 28 and its intent is to showcase information and current topics and trends in OHS to companies.

“It gives us an opportunity to look for some really great guest speakers to bring into Lloydminster,” Carson said when asked what the grant will go towards.

There were three different grants which could have been applied for those include: Capacity building, a maximum of $10,000, which include conferences, seminars and learning sessions; Action, a maximum of $20,000, which include developing and disseminating information resources and awareness campaigns; and Momentum, a maximum of $50,000, which is differentiated from action because it requires a partnership with another organization.

“We are proud to fund education and training initiatives that help reduce workplace incidents, injuries and illnesses. These grant recipients are helping to promote workplace health and safety in our communities,” said Gray.

This is the first time which the Lloydminster Construction Association has received this grant. Carson noted as OHS was something, they were glad to help bolster around the city.

“We are looking at promoting safety in the workplace in all industries, and both of our events are open to the public,” she said.

While adding the association runs the Lakeland Regional Safety Committee, which is affiliated with the Alberta and Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association, so advocating for health and safety was part of their mandate.
“Safety is a huge part of our workplace and we like to promote safety to all our employers and their employees to make sure they make it home safe at the end of the day,” said Carson.

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